In this heartfelt Southern love story from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Notebook, a daring fireman rescues a single mom--and learns that falling in love is the greatest risk of all. When confronted by raging fires or deadly accidents, volunteer fireman Taylor McAden feels compelled to take terrifying risks to save lives. But there is one leap of faith Taylor can't bring himself to make: he can't fall in love. For all his adult years, Taylor has sought out women who need to be rescued, women he leaves as soon as their crisis is over and the relationship starts to become truly intimate. When a raging storm hits his small Southern town, single mother Denise Holton's car skids off the road. The young mom is with her four-year-old son Kyle, a boy with severe learning disabilities and for whom she has sacrificed everything. Taylor McAden finds her unconscious and bleeding, but does not find Kyle. When Denise wakes, the chilling truth becomes clear to both of them. Kyle is gone. During the search for Kyle, a connection between Taylor and Denise takes root. But Taylor doesn't know that this rescue will be different from all the others. Editorial Reviews Nicholas Sparks's latest tale of romantic angst, The Rescue, has all of his trademark elements: characters who are part of the walking wounded, the fresh hope of new love, and the crushing force of unexpected tragedy. But this time out, Sparks opts for a happier ending, though not before wringing as many tears from his readers as he can. - bn.com Secret traumas again haunt Sparks's characters, in the author's fourth novel (after The Notebook; Message in a Bottle; A Walk to Remember). Denise Holden, the 29-year-old heroine, is destitute and forced to live in her mother's old house in Edenton, N.C. She's also the single mother of a handicapped child, Kyle, a four-year-old with "auditory processing problems" that render him unable to express himself or to fully understand others. Though she doesn't suspect it, Denise is on a literal collision course with true love. After she smashes her car into a tree and wakes up to discover Kyle missing, she finds deliverance in the form of Taylor McAden, dashing firefighter and compulsive risk taker, who rescues Kyle, too. Since Taylor enjoys an instant, unprecedented rapport with Kyle, there is little standing in the way of burgeoning romance. Trouble comes, however, when Denise learns of Taylor's checkered romantic past. Taylor's inability to commit, it seems, is somehow tied to his compulsive heroism, of which numerous histrionic examples are described. Denise's quest to find the source of Taylor's emotional distance takes up the final third of the book. The story here is mostly a pretext for the emotional assault that Sparks delivers, but when he manages to link affect to action, the result is cunningly crafted melodrama. These occasions are rare, though; more often Sparks gets bogged down in interminable interior monologue. Because these characters are preordained lovers, their feelings prescribed by fiction conventions, their psychology amounts to little more than a profusion of banality. Yet Sparks's narrative acquires immediacy when his characters' exaggerated emotions compel immoderate actions, and his readers will surely delight at these moments of heightened expressiveness. 1 million first printing; 24-city author tour. (Sept.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.| - Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly Though detractors may say he writes "like a girl," the would-be king of romance (The Notebook) continues to please his readers. In Edenton, a small town on the North Carolina coast, Denise Holton struggles to raise her young son, Kyle, alone. Adding to her isolation is her time-consuming effort to combat Kyle's severe language-processing disability. As a result of a car accident during a storm, she meets Taylor McAden, a local contractor and volunteer fireman. Though Taylor seems to be meant for Denise--he evidently loves Kyle as well--he suffers from a classic case of "can't commit." But is it more than that? What's behind the fa ade of this charming rescuer? Taylor comes close to losing what he most desires as he finally confronts his secret demons. This novel will appeal to female readers seeking another romantic story with a happy ending.--Rebecca Sturm Kelm, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\ - Library Journal High-stakes weepmeister Sparks (A Walk to Remember, 1999, etc.) opts for a happy ending his fourth time out. His writing has improved-though it's still the equivalent of paint-by-numbers-and he makes use this time of at least a vestige of credible psychology. - Kirkus Reviews "A romantic page-turner . . . Sparks's fans won't be disappointed."-Glamour "A modern master of fateful love stories."-BookPage "All of Sparks's trademark elements - love, loss, and small-town life - are present in this terrific read."-Booklist - From the Publisher Taylor McAddon rescues a single mother and her small child after a one-car accident during a raging North Carolina storm. But in the end it's she who rescues Taylor from the demons that have possessed him since the death of his own father years before. Mary Beth Hurt and John Belford Lloyd alternate segments of the story, with their parts set off by passages of folk guitar music. Hurt's Taylor is somewhat muddy, but she nails Denise and her small son, Kyle, offering a sensitive portrayal of the young mother and her challenged child. Lloyd presents a much more convincing Taylor, right up to the sobbing scene near the end, during which he sounds embarrassed by the syrupy text. The package comes across as good entertainment, predictability of plot notwithstanding. R.P.L. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine - JUN/JUL 01 - AudioFile